Asynchronous Design—Part 1: Overview and Recent Advances

Abstract

An asynchronous design paradigm is capable of addressing the impact of increased process variability, power and thermal bottlenecks, high fault rates, aging, and scalability issues prevalent in emerging densely packed integrated circuits. The first part of the two-part article on asynchronous design presents a chronicle of past and recent commercial advances, as well as technical foundations, and highlights the enabling role of asynchronous design in two application areas: GALS systems and networks-on-chip.